Suunto Traverse GPS Outdoor Watch

I had been looking at various Suunto watches for a while and had read many reviews about different ones. Lots of reviews were negative but I haven't experienced the problems that many people seem to have. The price was great and couldn't be matched or beaten anywhere else I had looked. The battery life is very good and it is very easy to adjust the efficiency of this when using GPS. I used it for an 8 hour bike ride and set it to update GPS on the good setting (15 hours battery life). This worked well and I was able to navigate easily with the 'move' I had programmed on the Movescount website. The watch used 50% battery for this ride so with a portable charger this would be fine for multi-day usage.
The app did have some problems but the update means that everything works well on this now including movies of activities and the maps. The watch does take a while to sync with the app but it doesn't bother me. The storm alarm is a good feature and has worked well when switched on. I have also used it for hiking and running and had no problems with it for these activities either.
There are still several features I haven't used but I am more than happy with the watch and does exactly what Suunto say it does.

I was nervous buying this watch as I had read so many negative reviews.. but after lots of research I found this is an ideal watch for walking/hiking. All the others on the market were alot more in value and had loads of apps I wouldn't use. If you want a watch for more than walking trips, navigating you around and helping in case you get lost, this might not be the one for you.

For me, I found the face quite large but it does have a lot of gadgets built in and I can live with that. The battery life is great for its capability. I have walked 3 times, 2 hours on 2 trips 6 hrs on another easy using its GPS and then used it as a watch and it held its charge superbly. I was surprised as someone in a review mentioned it wasn't great and cut off after 1 use... That can't be accurate unless he/she used it for longer than 15hrs on it's highest settings. But the watch does state what its battery can do, a if you go over that.. that's your fault. You can amend the setting for its GPS which will save battery power or use more, but it tells you the average time usage you will get.

I have used it's online and mobile app which are easy to use. My laptop didn't automatically download the driver, but I found it on suuntos website and the instructions were easy to follow. I added my own custom hiking trail to my watch and I followed the map very easily. It you get lost and go off the track, it shows you how to get back on.

You can even Bluetooth your phone to it and get notifications on your watch incase you didn't hear your phone.

Overall I am extremely happy with the purchase and I would recommend this watch for a walker, great value for money.

Firstly the product is advertised as "tested tough". i have no idea where the traverse was tested tough but after around a month the strap attachment pin managed to wear though the plastic housing leaving it impossible to stay attached. This was raised with suunto. After 6 weeks they just sent me a new strap. Utterly pointless. I am a mountain bike guide and was to begin work so the solution 6 weeks after all of the information in order to deal with the problem was given i needed to use the watch for at least the GPS location. I now have to carry it in my bag.
The movescout program may look nice but is equally as pointless. You are unable to take a move and use only part of it to plan a route, you can only add to it. I addition to this when you do use a route on the watch to follow it is impossible to use! I generally do around 25 to 40km, the arrow on the screen is so huge that you have to travel around 4km in the wrong direction to be able to tell if you are going the wrong way! so 8km of wasted time and effort. Just don't get one.

Ive had to put mine up for sale, the battery life is poor, if your doing more then 5 hours hiking in recording mode. Twice now its stopped recording due to battery life. These watches should have back up normal watch batteries for this simple reason.

Before I purchased this watch yesterday I have read lots of reviews and found some negative reviews about it being complicated and that it was not accurate enough to guide you up a mountain and blah blah blah but I really wanted it and don't like the garmin. So took a chance. Created a route on moves count on a route I know very well downloaded it to watch and went out this morning it's ace one glance and I can see I'm on course I even added poi on route. Had a go at going off course aswell. Got home and it had synced my walk into moves count already as I had it Bluetooth ed to my phone app and I could see the route I actually did and the speed the altitude the temp everything.
It's an excellent watch just don't get it out on a walk and expect it to work you need to get to grips with it first.

Wasn't a big fan of Suunto until I bought this one and now have 3 different Suunto watches. Large watch face, easy read display and a great back light which lights up the whole face and not just the numerals like some of their other watches (Core) Battery life could be better but on par with other GPS watches on the market. Good range of functions and easy to set up. A smart everyday watch or one to use when going hiking etc.

Picked this up today, excellent service from Gooutdoors as usual, i chose this watch after favourable reviews, what i am struggling with is the impossible task of understanding and applying the set up instructions which there are at least 3 versions, it took 2 hours just to pair this via bluetooth to the app/phone, several hours later in the comfort of my home i am about to give up, imagine trying to use this out in the elements is scarey to me, the display is extremely poor also, simply over complicated.

Just like Badgered I spent along time researching and looking at the market. I also considered the Ambit 3 Peak and the Garmins which are great pieces of kit but as I am no longer an athlete I would not use lot of the functions. I have not used it yet because Father Christmas has not delivered it yet. But it looks really stylish and it is not as bulky as the Ambit 3. The purchase and delivery was first class and very fast and I am confident that if anything is wrong Go Outdoors will help.

I was looking for a gps watch with good battery life and water resistant. I started looking at the Ambit 2/3 and the Garmin. Although the colour display was great on the garmin, the long list of issues put me off. I found out that Suunto were releasing a new watch, The Traverse. I read up and liked the functions list so I bit the bullet and bought it from Go Outdoors. They were £20 cheaper than the nearest price.

What's it like in real life?
Day 1.. You will use 70% battery just by fiddling, but once set up the watch lasts for ages.
Use the lock button feature, or every time you look at the screen you will be on a different function.

The only drawback is the strap length. It would be good if they had used the longer strap from the dive computers.

On the whole a great watch with good functionality and ease of use.